Graduates 'face tough competition'

Graduates are set to earn record starting salaries when they leave university this summer but face unprecedented competition for the best jobs, research has found.

Average starting salaries are likely to reach £25,500 at 100 top employers - £1,700 more than last year's package.

But High Fliers Research, which compiled the figures, warned that there would be more than 50 graduates applying for each vacancy at many of the UK's leading firms.

Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research, said final-year students faced "a fiercely competitive environment" in their hunt for top jobs.

"Record numbers of graduate vacancies at these popular organisations should help more of this year's university finalists land a well-paid job after graduation," he said.

"But the recent expansion of employers' graduate programmes has not kept pace with the huge rise in the number of students going to university over the past decade.

"With 265,000 graduates expected to leave university in 2007, competition for places on the most prestigious graduate schemes is likely to be tougher than ever and many top employers expect to receive at least 50 applications for each of their vacancies."

Some of the larger investment banks, offering starting salaries of up to £35,000, will attract 200 or 300 applications for every graduate job, he said.

The research found average starting salaries for some of the best-paid graduate jobs would be 7.1% higher this year.

Accountancy and professional services, investment banks and the armed forces were set to be the largest graduate employers this year.